Now Celebrating 700,000 Views — By Niko Goutakolis

Review: 2018 AAA Challenge-Skills-Derby (Part 2)

Yesterday, we covered the basics of the fan experience, or the soft product of the Triple-A Skills & Challenge competition.

This installment will focus on the actual events themselves, which differed from the Home Run Derby’s of years prior.

Previously, there would be a Home Run Derby, divided into three different rounds, featuring eight hitters, which was narrowed down to four, and eventually two in the final round.

This year, the format was completely overhauled. As previously mentioned, the all-stars were divided into teams, with one player from each team participating in each event. Each team would wear a certain color, and would be cheered on by sections wearing that color’s t-shirt.

The mid-event entertainment was also lackluster with the same t-shirt toss over and over again (remember, every fan was already given a few free t-shirts, so the prospect of a t-shirt toss wasn’t too exciting at that point).

Luckily, the home run derby re-energized the crowd. One of the participants was Mets’ own Zach Bournstein, who hit four home runs, including two to the opposite field, which was nice to see.

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About Niko Goutakolis

I'm a 17 year old Mets writer for MetsPlus.com. I've been writing for this family of blogs since 2013. I was the Baseball Bloggers Alliance President from 2014-2015, and I'm credentialed by various MiLB teams. You can contact me at Niko@MetsPlus.com

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